On Wednesday, September 10th from 12-1pm in the Mellon Studio Theatre, we invite you to discuss, network, get to know, and have lunch with r aster syrell — the artist behind the Mitchell Art Museum's Summer exhibition "Approaching the Garden". 

About the Show

Over a period of 73 days and nights, syrell created art in the museum. Her process was the exhibition’s primary subject. Everything was in flux: the drawings and paintings you saw one day were not the same the following week. By the end of the show, the body of work created was truly magnificent. 

In "Approaching the Garden", rather than seeking to reduce and control the world she sees in the reflect- ions, syrell explored the chaotic, rupturing, reflective translucence of the museum windows themselves. She layered this slowly changing constellation of image-objects into her canvases to activate myriad temporalities. In working this way, she pushed back against a particularly structured and commodified view of time and space born with the advent of Capitalism.

Queer and trans discourses often describe time in anti- or para-Capitalist terms. It is non-linear, full of shifts, recursions, and discontinuities. This is where the ostensible subject of her exhibition (a non-linear artistic process) and the painting’s actual content (the complex experience of being in the world) intersect. It is also what fuels the metaphor in the exhibition’s title, “Approaching the Garden”. Think of it as a search for a truth or ideal comprised of paradoxical realities, one that is likely unattainable but worth the pursuit.

About this Event

If you didn't have the chance to see this unfold over the Summer — or you did but have more questions about it — this event is for you. If you want to talk to an artist about how they navigate working in the world we currently live in, this event is for you. If you just like discussing art, there's not a better place for that either. 

About the Artist

syrell is an observational painter, meaning that she draws and paints what she sees. She thinks of “observational painting” in broad terms, allowing for the inclusion of memory alongside sight. r aster syrell teaches at St. John’s University in New York and Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland. 

Details

If you'd like to attend this luncheon, please send us a message at mitchellartmuseum@sjc.edu.

You may bring your own lunch; otherwise, we will provide pizza and sodas for the group. 

Best, 

The /m Team